Askamum love my blog, ooo-errr how exciting!

When Jonny and I bought our flat in East London we were both working. Neither of us had particularly high salaries and we were originally going to go for a 100% mortgage as we definitely didn’t have any savings. In the end Jonny’s parents and my Mum offered to give us a fairly large sum of money each which meant we could put down a small deposit. We were very lucky. At the last-minute, and as it was just at the start of the banking crisis, our mortgage offer was pulled unless we could come up with an even larger sum of money and we had no option but to ask my Dad for a loan. Thankfully for us he was in a position to do so and we were able to go ahead with our purchase and now, because my Grandma left me some money in her will, I was able to pay him back. If we hadn’t had help from our parents there is no way we would ever have got on the property ladder and I am so grateful that we have parents who were able to help us because I think and hope that it will stand us in good stead for the future.

We live in the most expensive area where we live, don’t ask me how we managed that one but we did! House prices have actually gone up and should we sell now, then I think we would make some money. We obviously don’t want to sell yet but it’s good to know that we have the option when so many are in negative equity and that could so easily have been us had we lived in a different area. It means we could afford a house in a less desired area which is an option for us and hopefully, if we hang on for long enough it means when we eventually move back to Norfolk, we can have a brilliant ‘forever home’ with the money our flat sells for. House prices are so much cheaper in Norfolk you see. We owe that entirely to our parents. I wonder how anyone does it when they don’t have the luxury of that assistance – we are so very lucky – and we know it!

Jonny and I had to visit the bank of Mum and Dad for our house purchase and I’m not too embarrassed about that one. They could do it, we needed it and as a parent now myself I understand you’d do anything you could to make your children’s lives easier so I know that they wanted to. The monthly withdrawals I do have a problem with, and when I say problem, I’m actually very grateful for them too! We unfortunately have to visit the bank of Mum and Dad every month as both my Mum and Jonny’s parents give us a sum of money and without it I don’t think we would be able to pay our mortgage. Or if we did we wouldn’t be able to heat the house. Or if we did we wouldn’t be able to eat… Life is just very, very expensive and we are embarrassed but we accept this money each month because we have to. We really wish we didn’t and Jonny is studying hard doing an Open University degree to hopefully train as a teacher and have the prospect of a better income so fingers crossed we won’t always be reliant on our parents – we’re in our thirties now after all!

We could always down size, sell our flat and rent somewhere further out and less expensive but then where would Jonny work? We don’t have to run a car of course but life would be hard without it, especially with children and we honestly don’t use it unless we have to. I suppose living on baked beans and wearing all our jumpers to turn the heating down is an option too but because of our wonderful parents we don’t have to make these compromises. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not living lavish lifestyles frittering away the money they give/long lend us, we always try to be frugal. I know Jonny and I do have lots of money compared to so many people, I’m not trying to say we’re poor but we would struggle, more than struggle, without our parents help.

I guess this post is to say thank you to our parents and to say hopefully, one day, we won’t borrow any more money from you! My Mum always says ‘I hope you’ll look after me in my old age’! And I have to say of course we will Mum, whatever you give us or don’t give us we’d look after you if you needed it. That’s how families work isn’t it! I hope one day we are in a position that we can lend and give money to our children if they need it to buy a house or raise their families and I hope that they too will want to look after us when we are old regardless of whether we can afford to help like our parents do. Families are there to love each other and make each other as happy and comfortable as possible so I just want to do for my children what our parents do and continue to do for us. It’s not all about the money either, they do so much for us and we’re so grateful! What would we do without our Mummies and Daddies eh?

Our parents with our children.

MY LIFE WITH 2!

We’ve had such a superb week visiting various friends, seeing Father Christmas both in the theatre and for a present request visit and generally just being very Christmassy. We put our tree up and Florence loved it, she was also really good at it too! The only things was afterwards she wanted to know what happened now? And was it time to leave the mince-pie for father Christmas and the carrot for the reindeer. It took a while to explain we have lots of fun things in the wait but that we did have to wait a while longer…

Jimmy had two more teeth come this week and is using them to chomp down on most things including my nipple once already! The pain was eye watering but he looked so shocked when I yelped that I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him! He has been commando crawling for a while now but he’s just found his knees and is up on them looking very proud of himself! I’d forgotten that this stage is just full of milestones and you can almost see them learning things with your very eyes so quickly does it all come. When he started clapping and waving a couple of weeks ago I thought i couldn’t be prouder but yesterday he offered me some of his food and loved it when I pretended to eat it from him. Made my heart soar with pride for my lovely sharing 7 month old boy, he’s so lovely!

We’ve been enjoying the lights in London this week – they really are good! We had to pop into town for a meeting so we took full advantage and visited some of the sights! Florence loved posing for photos with the Coca-Cola Christmas lorry and a giant reindeer in Covent Garden! We also took a trip to see the big man in Harrods and asked him for some Christmas presents! While we were in there we popped into the pop-up Disney shop which is awesome! We went into the slipper boutique to try on Cinderella slippers and saw Tess Daly doing exactly the same with her girls! We had so much fun. If you’ve not been yet then make sure you pop down, it’s a real treat for any Disney fan. We spent hours in Harrods playing with the toys in Toy Kingdom and vising the adorable animals (puppies and kittens were our fave) in Pet Kingdom and then we saw Father Christmas – lovely day!

After our visit to Father Christmas at Harrods we met one of his elves, then we tried on Cinderella slippers and had a dance like a Disney Princess!

Covent Garden is very festive and fun!

In the meantime follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby.

(All opinions and words, apart from those in green, are my own. I have not been paid for this article although I did receive some products to keep after I had reviewed them.)

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